Sadler finds going easier with Robert Yates

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. - Ask Elliott Sadler the conditions required for a top-10 finish during his first four years in the Winston Cup Series, and he'll openly tell you "a near-perfect day."

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Ask him the same question about the current campaign, and he'll tell you the top-10 is attainable even when everything goes dreadfully wrong.

Sadler was sent to the rear of the field twice during Sunday's Subway 400 at North Carolina Speedway, only to battle back into the top-10 both times.

"To go to the rear of the field twice was damn tough, man," said Sadler, who started 11th and finished ninth. "I wish somebody had a count of how many cars we passed today. It was a bunch, but I was very, very loose and some of the guys were really hard to pass like Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Spencer and Jeff Green.

"But those are the guys you've got to learn how to pass if you're going to win races. I drove my guts out for them today. I wanted to show them guys I'm a racecar driver and I'm for real. You get me in the right equipment I can win races. I think they saw that today."

There's no questioning his comeback ability. Sadler quickly moved into the top five Sunday, but the No. 38 M&Ms Ford slowly began to overheat. After contact with teammate and eventual race winner Dale Jarrett, Sadler pitted to repair the grill.

	Elliott Sadler Credit: Autostock

He restarted the race on lap 48 in 39th position, but moved back into the top-10 -- and as high as seventh -- before being penalized by NASCAR on lap 291 for a loose tire on pit road during a pit stop.

After the infraction, Sadler was sent to the end of the longest line on the track, dropping him from seventh to the 27th in the running order.

Over the next 102 laps, he battled back into the top-10.

"We had great pit stops all day long. The guys did their jobs, just bad luck on that deal with the tire," Sadler said. "But to come from the rear of the field twice here, with only 80 or 90 laps to go there at the end, was a lot of fun.

"I had a great racecar, drove it real loose. I'm just glad my teammate's in Victory Lane, because we learned a lot down here testing and I'm glad he was able to use that to win this thing."

Preseason Rockingham test by Sadler helped Jarrett win

With weekend-long showers disallowing two of the weekend's three practice sessions, Jarrett and crew chief Brad Parrott implemented the setup discovered by Sadler and crew chief Raymond Fox during a test at Rockingham earlier in the month.

"He pretty much put our setup in it," Sadler said. "I'm sure they fine-tuned on it a little and made it better, but the stuff we learned here testing enabled (RYR) to have two top-10s here.

"I would have loved to have been second to him, or even tried to win the race. We were definitely one of the fastest cars here all day.

"You know, the first couple years of my career everything had to go right for us to finish 9th. And today everything went wrong and we still finished 9th. We've got a real young team. If we can stay together and stay healthy, we're going to win a bunch of races."